EP 1: Teamsters v. Uber

Will automation destroy 3 million more jobs before the next presidential election in 2020? In this episode, we talk George Washington, AI, automated flour mills, Uber, autonomous semis, and the Teamsters. Inaugural episode (kind of).

SHOW NOTES

Oliver Evans designed the first automated flour mill in Delaware in the 1780s. He secured the third U.S. Patent in 1790. Evans’s mills eliminated 80-100% of the required labor force. The “Evans system” was adopted at Mount Vernon in 1791.

In 1840, a Boston bootmaker (cordwainer) Jeremiah Horne broke ranks with the Boston Journeyman Bootmaker’s Society. He filed a complaint with the county attorney, and they arrested the union leaders on charges of criminal conspiracy. In 1842, the Massachusetts Supreme Court sided with the union, which effectively legalized labor unions.